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Are the Jays Offering Jose Bautista $65 Million?

February 17, 2011 By Jordan 1 Comment

According to numerous reports, the Toronto Blue Jays are set to offer Jose Bautista a $65 million, five-year deal.

ESPNdeportes.com is reporting on the deal as done, while other outlets have been speculating as to its finer points. On Wednesday night, numerous reports said that Bautista and the club were “close” to the deal.

The contract apparently has an option for a sixth season that would bring the contract up to $78 million,  making him the highest paid player on the Jays’ roster.

Obviously the plan here is to use the late-blooming slugger to kick-start the Jays’ rise back through the American League East Division. It’s a gesture of good faith to Bautista, who led the majors with 54 dingers last season. Prior to that, however, he’d never hit more than 16 a season in his previous six years. For some, the giant contract is a gamble on a player that the Jays are very high on. For others, it’s an instance of the club solidifying its dedication for the future.

Apparently Bautista was seeking a one-year deal worth $10.5 million through arbitration. The team is going above and beyond that call, which raises some interesting questions about where the franchise hopes to go here. It also calls into question the legitimacy of the numbers and of the early reports. Would Toronto really bank that much on Bautista? Do they believe in him above what an arbitration hearing would have fetched?

It’s expected that the Jays could give word one way or the other on a Bautista deal some time on Thursday. The club has remained mum on things thus far and actually postponed the arbitration hearing from Monday to Friday of this week, seemingly in order to get a deal done. Is this the deal? We should know soon enough.

If it is, will Jose Bautista single-handedly change the fate of the Jays? Will they meteorically rise through the American League on the back of the 30-year-old?

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Kaberle Would Permit Bruins Trade

February 15, 2011 By Jordan 1 Comment

Tomas Kaberle says that he’d approve a move to the Boston Bruins and only the Boston Bruins prior to the trade deadline.

Sportsnet has been reporting that the Toronto defenceman has allowed the Maple Leafs the window of talking to the Bruins about a potential trade. This is big news because Kaberle had previously impeded the team’s movement around his no-trade clause. This isn’t a waiving of the clause, mind you, but it does mark a step in the right direction if the desire is to move Kaberle out of town.

Leafs GM Brian Burke refused comment on the subject, adding that Kaberle’s agent Rick Curran requested silence until his client’s situation is resolved one way or the other. Curran, too, had no comment.

On a Boston radio station, Burke confirmed that he was indeed talking to the Bruins. He didn’t mention details, however, refusing to discuss whether Kaberle was part of the talks. He added that he was not, contrary to popular wishes perhaps, trying to get back the first-round draft pick T-Dot sent to the Bruins in exchange for Phil Kessel. Ha ha.

Cam Neely, an executive with the Bruins, said that his team is “close to something.”

Burke made a deal on Tuesday morning to add a bit more sandpaper to the club. He acquired Aaron Voros from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a conditional seventh round pick. This follows up the earlier movement in the week that saw Kris Versteeg head to the Flyers for a handful of draft picks. A week ago, Burke traded defenceman Francois Beauchemin to Anaheim for Joffrey Lupul and defence prospect Jake Gardiner.

Word has been floating around a lot as of late about a possible trade for Kaberle. The team tried to get it done a number of times, but the defenceman was eager to remain a Leaf. That desire has cleared at least a little, but a deal with the Bruins is the only answer. There are some signs pointing to that being the case, but only time will tell if Burke can pull the trigger.

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Thornhill’s Raonic Wins ATP Tour Title

February 14, 2011 By Jordan Leave a Comment

Milos Raonic has become the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour title since 1995. Raonic grew up in Thornhill, Ontario, and snagged the win by defeating Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) in the final of the San Jose Open. The SAP Open is actually the second oldest tournament in the United States. It is held in the HP Pavilion.

Raonic was actually born in Yugoslavia but came to Canada early on at the age of three. He began playing tennis at the age of eight at the Blackmore Tennis Club in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He is a big fan of the Toronto Raptors, apparently.

The 20-year-old is Canada highest-ranked singles player in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) at 59th and this victory will only catapult his career.

According to the Toronto Star, “Raonic had 13 aces and 20 service winners in the match, reaching 149 mph. on the radar gun. The 20-year-old Raonic became the youngest winner on tour since Marin Cilic won in New Haven in 2008 at age 19.” He has been on a considerable run as of late, going through qualifying and winning matches in the Australian Open before wrapping it up in San Jose. At the end of last year, he was ranked 156th in the world. As you might have noticed, Raonic’s moved up in the world since then.

“I can’t stop smiling.” he said. “I’m happy about it and I hope I can keep it going more than six weeks, for a full year schedule, and see where I am at the end of the year.”

When Raonic won in San Jose, he was presented with a San Jose Sharks jersey, $92,000 (USD) and a bottle of maple syrup. “It’s nice to know a hockey arena isn’t new to me,” Raonic said of winning where the Sharks lace the skates. “I’ve been in a few of these. This feels like home.”

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UFC 129 Set to Break Gate Records

February 12, 2011 By Jordan Leave a Comment

According to MMAJunkie.com, the UFC 129 event in Toronto is officially sold out – for now.

Today’s public tickets were sold out within mere minutes, leaving a handful of “good seats” available for top dollar. The Toronto Star notes that “ticket reseller Stubhub offered seats from $104.99 (500 level, Row 20, corner upper tier) to $39,999 (ringside cage, Row 1).”

As far as the official event, which hits the Rogers Centre in T-Dot on April 30th, should have about 52,000 people in attendance. It’s expected to crack gate records. Execs are still tabulating the official figures, but it’s known that about 42,000 tickets were sold on Thursday during the first day of sales. These tickets were only available to members of UFC Fight Club, a subscription-based service that gives benefits to members.

Rogers Centre has hosted events in the neighbourhood of 69,000 people and could squeeze in some more beyond the UFC allotment if need be, but for now it is what it is. The UFC layout, complete with video screens and the like, takes up quite a bit of room and limits the crowd that can pack into Rogers Centre for the event. Even so, officials are stating without reservation that the initial estimations of 50,000 people will likely be cracked.

UFC’s popularity in Canada has been unquestionable. Montreal’s UFC 124 holds the UFC’s current attendance record with 23,152. Gate records in the UFC sit at $5.4 million thanks to the UFC 66 event in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Both of these records are expected to be shattered to pieces with the Toronto event.

UFC 129 will be headlined by Canadian Georges St-Pierre. He’s set to rumble with American fighter Jake Shields, a member of the so-called “scrap pack” along with the likes of Nick and Nate Diaz. Brazil’s José Aldo will tangle with Canadian featherweight Mark Hominick. And Randy Couture will take on Lyoto Machida in a light heavyweight bout.

Photo c/o Toronto Star

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Brian Burke: Expect More Moves

February 10, 2011 By Jordan Leave a Comment

The general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs says that there may be more moves after the recent Francois Beauchemin trade.

“We’re excited about today. We think it’s a good day. It fits with our program, getting younger, slightly younger, in this case,” said Burke. “You can expect more moves. We’re not done. We continue to be active. We have nothing imminent, but that of course can change with a phone call.”

Burke added some top-six scoring talent in acquiring Joffrey Lupul for Beauchemin. Defensive prospect Jake Gardiner and a 2013 draft pick were also part of the deal.

Burke’s plan appears to be to kickstart the youth movement on the Leafs. “In moving Francois Beauchemin out, we’re punching a hole here for a younger defenceman,” he said. “We don’t have a roster spot, we have nothing to announce today, but as soon as we get a roster spot, we’re calling up Keith Aulie. We expect him to be here for a while.”

Centre John Mitchell, recently put on waivers, will have to have his future determined as well. It looks like he’ll either be claimed by another team or sent to the Marlies, but either scenario opens the aforementioned door for Aulie.

Fans may be having trouble believing their ears, but this year’s Leafs are talking playoffs.

“People are going to ask if this is a concession on a playoff spot. It’s not at all,” said Burke. “In our view, our scoring has been bunched to a handful of people, we’re adding an asset (Lupul) that can basically diversify our scoring a little bit, give us some dimension on power plays. We think the big man (Aulie) can step in and play on defence. He’s a young kid, we don’t want to put too much pressure on him, he’ll make mistakes, but we expect him to come up and be here for a while.”

Coach Ron Wilson says that he’s planning to pay Lupul an awful lot in order to generating that offensive strength. This gives the Leafs three lines that can score, theoretically, and still opens up some options for the trade deadline. It’s not a bad place to be.

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